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Roland Kersting
— Assistant Professor of Physics
— Faculty of Information Technology,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Education:
— Ph.D., Natural Sciences, Institute for Semiconductor Technology,
Rheinisch Westfaelische Technische Hochschule (RWTH), Aachen, Germany,
1994
— Physics Diploma, Institute for Semiconductor Technology,
RWTH, Aachen, 1990
Career Highlights:
Kersting joined the Rensselaer faculty in fall of 1999 as an assistant
professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy;
a year later, he became a faculty member of Information Technology.
Prior to his roles at Rensselaer, he spent a year as a researcher
at the Institute for Solid State Electronics at the Technical University
of Vienna, Austria, investigating terahertz (THz) excitation of
intersubband transitions, and several months as a guest researcher
studying THz semiconductor devices at the University of Nottingham,
in the United Kingdom. He also held two postdocs at the University
of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, each
for two years. The first was at the Institute of Physical Chemistry,
where he studied coherent and incoherent excitation transfer in
polymers. At the Institute for Solid State Electronics, Kersting
studied the generation of few-cycle THz pulses.
Research Areas:
Kersting's research within the Center for Broadband Data Transport
Science and Technology involves THz photonics, a radical new concept
for the development of ultrahigh speed devices. Terahertz photonics
will give access to THz frequencies while still using standard semiconductor
processing technology. Potential applications for terahertz photonics
include ultrafast data communications and high speed Internet connects.
The conceptual idea is to use so-called
few-cycle THz pulses as information units. These ultrafast far-infrared
pulses can propagate on-chip along metallic transmission lines.
As in optical photonics, signal processing at THz frequencies can
be achieved by amplitude or by phase manipulation in conjunction
with nonlinear switching. Photonics in this band has not been addressed
intensively, although THz radiation can be generated by current
all-solid state techniques.
THz photonics may allow switching rates
of the order of 1 THz, and switching energies can be as small as
0.1 fJ, which allows for low power consumption and heat dissipation,
even at THz frequencies. Also, the quantum energy of THz radiation
(3 THz = 0.012eV) is orders of magnitude smaller than the quantum
energy of near-infrared light signals (800 nm ~ 1.5 eV), which
results in noise reduction. Current research focuses on silicon
germanium devices, which will be highly compatible with standard
semiconductor processing technology.
Selected Publications:
R. Ascazubi, O.C. Akin, T. Zaman, and R. Kersting, "Dephasing
in Modulation-doped Quantum Structures Probed by THz Time-Domain
Spectroscopy," Applied Physics Letters, 81,
4344, (2002).
A. Filin, M. Stowe, and R. Kersting, "Time-Domain
Differentiation of Terahertz Pulses," Optical Letters,
26,
2008, (2001).
E. Gornik and R. Kersting, "Coherent
THz Emission in Semiconductors," in Ultrafast Phenomena
in Semiconductors, edited by K.T. Tsen. A volume of "Semiconductors
and Semimetals," Treatise eds.: R.K. Willardson and E.R. Weber.
67,
389, Academic Press, (2000).
R. Kersting, G. Strasser, and K. Unterrainer,
"THz Phase Modulator," Electrical Letters, 36,
1156, (2000).
R. Kersting, R. Bratschitsch, G. Strasser,
K. Unterrainer, and J. Heyman. "Sampling a THz Dipole Transition
with Subcycle Time Resolution," Optical Letters, 25,
272, (2000).
R. Kersting, K. Unterrainer, G. Strasser,
H.F. Kauffmann, and E. Gornik. "Few-cycle THz Emission from
Cold Plasma Oscillations," Physical Review Letters,
79,
3038, (1997).
Contact Information:
Roland Kersting
1C22 Jonsson-Rowland Science Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 Eighth Street
Troy, N.Y. 12180 USA
(518) 276-3092
E-mail: kerstr@rpi.edu
www.rpi.edu/~kerstr/INDEX.HTM
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